Series: “Traveling Light” (GALATIANS)

Who’s Your King?

Galatians 4:8-20

 Introduction

 I’m competitive.  My competitive nature showed early in life.  I played soccer, hockey and track as a kid.  My competitive nature is alive and well today, as many of you who played slo-pitch this summer know.  I like to compete.  As such, I like to win.  In fact, I like to win much more than I like to lose.  If I play my best and lose, it’s tolerable, but it never feels good.  If I compete and win, then I’m happy.

 I have a friend who is a very good tennis player.  We used to play tennis three or four times a week.  Over the course of a year, that added up to a lot of matches.  Do you want to know how many of those matches I won?  Two.  In all the time we played tennis together, I won twice.  The first was when he was sick and not at his best, the other time was when I played unconscious, way over my head, a freak of nature.  I rarely won.

 I would often come home after playing tennis with my friend and Lisa would say, “How was the game?”  I’d say, “It was ok.”  The couple of times I won, and Lisa would ask me how the game was I would shout, “It was great!”  When I won, I was happier than when I lost.  When I won, I was happier than my friend who lost.  Isn’t that the nature of competition?  The goal is winning.  How many people set out to lose?  I don’t know many.

 What I’m about to tell you may make you ask yourself “why is this guy our pastor?”  I’ll go further and say that if we compete against one another, and if I win, I’m happier than you!  It means that for that brief time, during that game or competition, I was faster, stronger, smarter than you!  

 Now, if you’re sitting there thinking, “Oh man, what an arrogant jerk!  I can’t believe this guy’s our pastor!”  I would say, as Shakespeare said, “You better know thyself.”  You see, we’re all in the same boat; we all want to “win”.  The games might be different, but the rules are all the same.  At the heart of winning is self-exaltation.  We want to be better than the other person.  We want to be tops, number one. 

 Now, I’m not suggesting we start trying to lose whenever we play a game.  That would make for dreadful experiences.  Competition is, however, a good illustration of the nature of our hearts.  Self-exaltation is a human condition.  The most gentle, mild mannered person has the same bent toward self-exaltation as anyone.  Why?  Because what lies at the heart of winning is at the heart of our human nature. As humans we live to exalt ourselves.  This is the nature of sin: the need to exalt ourselves over one another, and over God. 

 Sin

 It’s really important to understand the human condition.  This study of the human condition is called anthropology.  If we don’t understand anthropology, we won’t understand Christology.  When we understand the problem of sin inherent in all humans, we can understand what Jesus did to solve the problem.

 Sin began by Lucifer, the archangel, attempting to exalt himself over God.  As a result, he fell from heaven (Isaiah 14).  Lucifer, or the devil, then came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the form of a snake, and tempted them with the idea that they knew better than God, that God didn’t really mean they’d die of they ate from the tree…did he?  He tempted them to exalt themselves over God.  And they did.  As a result, sin entered the world, and they fell.  And because we come from Adam and Eve, we are born into the same state of sin as they lived in.  We have the same bent toward self-exaltation as they did.

 Sin doesn’t mean we’re as bad as we can be.  In fact we could be a lot worse.  What sin means is that every single part of our lives has been touched by rebellion.  It means that by nature we are self-centered, pride-filled.  It means that by nature, we exalt ourselves.  It means that by nature, as Adam and Eve demonstrated, we think we know better than God…that we can be God!  This is what sin is.     

 Conversion

 So if we humans are bent on self-exaltation, what happens when someone goes from self-worship to worshipping God?  How does someone become a Christian?  I know that on my own, I would never have moved from self-worship to God worship.  (Remember, I’m self-centered by nature!)

 Ah, this is where it gets good!  Becoming a Christian is not something we can do ourselves.  Moving from self-worship to God worship is an act of divine intervention!  It is the work of the Holy Spirit.  We don’t suddenly wake up one day and say, “you know, I’m tired of self-worship, I think I’ll start worshiping God today.”  Only God, through the Holy Spirit, can bring someone to a place of conversion.  Only God can move someone from self-worship to God worship. 

 You see when we become Christians, we no longer live to exalt/worship ourselves, we live to exalt Jesus.  Becoming a Christian is all about what God did, through Jesus, to save us.  It’s not about us; it’s all about God.  All we can do in that case is throw up our hands in grateful celebration.  That is worship.  When we become Christians, we move from self-worship to Jesus worship.      

 Why Jesus?

 So here’s my question: Why are Christians so bent on worshipping Jesus?  What makes Jesus so special?  Why not worship Buddha, or Mohamed?  Why not Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, or Billy Graham, or Mother Theresa? 

 Here’s the answer.  Before Jesus came to earth, he was with God, and he was God (John 1:1).  He came to earth, as a human, to save the world from sin (John 3).  Jesus came from God to make it possible for you and I to be free from self-worship, or sin.  Jesus allowed himself to be crucified on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.  On the cross, Jesus took the bomb for us; he allowed the wrath of God to explode in his chest.  After his crucifixion, Jesus became the only human to ever be raised to life never to die again.  In rising from the dead, he finished the work of salvation, meaning there would forever be a way for humans to turn from their sin and be rescued. 

 The Holy Spirit at work in me reminds me that on my own, I am incapable of changing.  On my own I am mired in self-centeredness and pride, but Jesus as king of my life changes me.  This is why we worship Jesus.  He alone is worthy. He alone deserves the praise.  And because, frankly, he’ll do a much better job at ruling my life than I could do. 

 The Galatians were tempted to go back to a way of life where Jesus only gets a share of the glory.  Where, in a sense Jesus shares the throne with them, where they share the exaltation.  (READ GALATIANS 4:8-20)

 Paul’s Pastoral Heart ( 4:19-20)—That Christ is formed in them

 In this part of the letter to the Galatians, Paul’s pastoral heart comes out louder and clearer than at any other point in the letter.  Paul really loves these Galatians.  He pleads with them, he longs for them to praise Jesus as king, allowing Jesus only to rule their lives.  His passion is clear when he says, “My dear children, for whom I am in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…”( 4:19 , emphasis added)

 Big Idea—“Become like me…”

 So what’s the big idea in this text this morning?  What do we need to walk away with?  Look at verse 12: “I plead with you brothers (and sisters), become like me…” Paul’s saying, become like me, follow my example. 

 Now, in our day following the examples set by people in positions of authority and leadership is not something we readily do.  We live in the age of skepticism and doubt.  We’re suspicious of authority and leadership.  We live in a time when self-direction, self-leadership is the thing, a time when leaders often don’t give us much worthy to follow.  So when we read a statement like the one Paul makes here, some of us might be a little turned off; who is he to suggest we imitate him? 

 I want to encourage you to try and look past the words on the page and see Paul’s motive.  Why is Paul urging the Galatians to be like him?  What is he calling them to?   

 Paul is saying, “I was once like you.  I was once destined to self-exaltation, I was once a slave to human expectation, and I was once bound to the law.  But then Jesus got hold of me, and I became free.  Free to let Jesus Christ Rule as king in my life, to have his way in me and change my heart.”

 That’s what Paul is calling the Galatians to imitate in him.  He wants them, like he did, to surrender control of their lives to Jesus—something that they’d done already, they accepted the gospel, cross and Spirit—but are now tempted to go back to their old way, “those weak and miserable principals…”

What’s happening in Galatia at the time is the Galatian Christians were under attack by ultra Jewish teachers.  These Judaizers were trying to get them to believe that Jesus wasn’t enough, that Jesus didn’t get all the credit, that it was Jesus plus, not Jesus only.  They were saying that Jesus could be a co-king, and that you could do certain things to please men and God through performance.

 For example, you could earn 50 points by eating a Kosher Jewish diet.  You could earn 75 points by observing all the Jewish festivals and holidays.  And you could, if you were a man and really committed to the Jewish way, earn 100 points plus another 100 bonus points by going all the way and getting circumcised! 

 This is what Paul has been so passionate to argue against.  It was Jesus only, and nothing they could do or earn could ever make them more or less acceptable to God because Jesus had done it all!  Jesus was king, the only one who is worthy of credit.  Therefore, Paul says, be like me.  Look at my life and see what Jesus can do if you let him be king…

1. Free to be Sons, not Slaves (4:8-9)—Prodigal Sons

Paul’s life demonstrates that through Jesus, you are free to be sons, not slaves.  You remember last week we talked about how Jesus set us free to be children of God, and that through the Holy Spirit we have an intimate relationship with God and can call him ‘Abba Father’.  In our text this morning, Paul reminds the Galatians that they have been free to be children, not slaves.

Slaves, or employees, get what they earn.  They can be hired and fired as the boss sees fit.  In times past, slaves could be beaten for not performing their duties well.  However, children are always children of the parents.   

Do you remember the story of the prodigal son?  It is the story of the son of a wealthy landowner who leaves his father’s estate and tries to make it on his own.  After some time the boy realized that his father’s way was the best way, and wanted to return.  He was humiliated, but wanted to go home.  However, he felt he was only worth what one of his father’s slaves are worth.  And so the whole way home to his father’s estate, he was rehearsing a speech he’d give to his father upon returning:

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men” (Luke 15:18 , 19).

Do you remember what the father did, the father who’d been aching since the day his son left home, the father who’d been scanning the horizon each night hoping his lost son would appear?  He wouldn’t let his son finish his prepared speech.  He’d have none of this slave talk.  Instead, the father said let’s throw the mother of all parties for my son who was lost has come home. 

With Jesus as king of our lives, we are free to be sons and daughters of God.  We, like the prodigal son, say things like “we don’t deserve the grace”, and we don’t; “we aren’t worthy of God’s love”, and we aren’t.  But because of what Jesus did on the cross, the Father has no time for our slave talk.  We are his beloved children.  Let’s have a party!  Be free to be children and not slaves. 

 2. Free to embrace suffering and weakness in life ( 4:12 -16)—Jesus’ scars

 Paul’s life demonstrates that through Jesus, you can be free to embrace suffering and weakness in life.  This is good news for anyone living with an illness or injury.  This is good news for anyone suffering from nagging insecurities.

Did you know that there was once a time when Paul had the power to heal?  So powerful was the Holy Spirit’s gift of healing in Paul, that even though Paul couldn’t be everywhere at once, he’s send around pieces of fabric and anyone who touched these pieces of cloth were healed.  It was a great time of signs and wonders in the early church.

However, did you know that for much of the last years of his life, Paul was sick?  Not only Paul, but also his friends, those who traveled with him were often sick.  Here’s my question: what happened to the God of the book of Acts and the miraculous healings?  Where did the healing go?  Did God stop being the God that heals?   I believe that God still heals today.  I believe also that sometimes, not always, people aren’t healed because they don’t ask (James 5).  Sometimes, though, in his mercy, God doesn’t heal.  In his mercy, you say! 

In our sickness and weakness, our deep-rooted insecurities, we come face-to-face with the end of ourselves.  It is at the end of ourselves when we naturally look for help, for hope and strength.  At the end of ourselves we can find Jesus.  I believe that God sometimes doesn’t heal because he wants us to keep us cling to Christ who is our life. 

Did you know that what brought Paul to Galatia in the first place was an illness ( 4:13 )?  He had a terrible eye ailment, and needed to get better.  During his stay there, he got to tell about Jesus and the Galatians welcomed Paul as if he were Jesus himself.  In the course of his recovery, God sovereignly used Paul’s weakness to communicate his grace to the people in Galatia . 

You know, it’s not our strengths that attract people to Jesus.  It’s our strengths that attract people to us.  Our weakness attracts people to Jesus; our weaknesses communicate the grace of God to those around us.  That is what is meant when we read in the Bible, “my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

When Jesus came back to life after his death, he appeared to his disciples.  One of his disciples, Thomas, wouldn’t believe that Jesus was alive unless he put his fingers into the holes in Jesus’ hands.  In other words, it was Jesus’ scars that pointed to God’s grace and mercy.  And he said to his disciples, “Now go, tell the world about me.  The same things are going to happen to you.  You are going to be sick, beaten, flogged, hungry, and lonely.  You’re going to be insecure, and doubt if it’s all worth it.  But I will breathe my Holy Spirit into you so that you will be strengthened in your weakness, and the grace of God will be what people see in you.”       

3. Free from the addiction of people pleasing (4:17-18)—Judaizers looking for adoration, looking to be pleased

Finally, Paul’s life demonstrates that in Jesus you can be set free from the addiction of people pleasing.  The Judaizers were, as Paul writes, “Zealous to win you over, but for no good.  What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them”( 4:17 ).  In other words, the Judaizers were all about human credit, and human effort.  They knew that Paul taught that Jesus gets all the credit.  And that took the focus off of them.

They were trying to get the Galatians to reconsider the gospel and return to the way of people pleasing (which is really what the whole Jewish system was built on).  In fact, it was the very system that Paul lived by until he was set free by Jesus.  Now, Paul lived by the grace of God, not the scrutiny of those judging his performance as a Jew.  The Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, had degenerated into a checklist for people to gauge someone’s worth.  The gospel, however, stated that everyone is valuable and worthy because God said so—because God did everything.

Jesus can set you free from the pressure of having to please people, because our worth is not wrapped up in people’s opinions.  Rather, our worth is infinite in the eyes of the gracious God of the Universe.    

Conclusion

Paul says, “Imitate me.”  In other words, look how much God loves us.  Look at what happens when Jesus is king.  One writer said that we can’t communicate how much God loves us by simply declaring “God loves us!”  We communicate how much God loves us by looking at the details of how he intervened on our behalf.[i]  I think in this we begin to truly see that God is very fond of us, that we are immeasurably valuable to him.

 Illustration: Scorpion and Man—It is in his nature to sting, yes.  But it is in my nature to save.[ii]

 The same principal applies to us.  Like the scorpion, it is in our nature to sting, or sin, exalt yourself.  However, God, through Jesus, reminds us that it is in his nature to save.  He demonstrated that nature in that while we were still sinning, he sent his son to die for us. 

 My prayer is that we as Christians renew our surrender to Jesus as King of our lives.  My prayer is that those here who’ve never surrendered to Jesus as king might consider it.  Maybe you’ve been listening over the last few weeks and you’re now ready to acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of saving.  Maybe this morning is the first time you’ve heard the truth about Jesus.  Maybe you want to go home and think about it a while.  That’s ok.  But I want you to know that it is impossible to remain neutral in the face of Jesus.  You were created by God to find your true life in him. 

 Who’s your king?  Who is the king of your life, you or Jesus?  Let’s pray…

Notes

(c) Shaun Dyer

Zion Baptist Church

Edmonton, Alberta